Recommended stories

Song of Another Country

13461346 views66 comments44 favs

And she warms her hands on fresh-cut gizzards, And he forgets the taste of honeyed peaches

Graven Images

10571057 views66 comments55 favs

Mother hated a crucifix. Graven, she said. Evidence that Catholics weren't saved, just stuck in ceremony. Jesus had risen and anyone who had to pray in Latin, count beads or confess to robed men who took orders from a monarch didn't know…

from: The Great San Francisco Poetry Wars

12621262 views66 comments55 favs

I got on the Greyhound Bus at 11 a.m. and sat by myself staring out the window. I could see the reflection of my own dark beard in the window, a 27 year-old man with a huge poem bursting my heart, gasping to get out into the bright lit-up world out there,

Herd

10841084 views88 comments44 favs

We may think about so many things and thoughts about rain. We may think about where it is going, where it comes from.

point

488488 views77 comments44 favs

---

Confessions of a Cursing Librarian

13981398 views88 comments44 favs

Under no circumstances can you say "fuck" when you're working in a public library. Especially in the junior room.

If. You. Speak.

11041104 views66 comments55 favs

The one at dusk is not the one you met this morning. That one's gone like a head in the window.

True Stories About False Dancers

10801080 views55 comments55 favs

The world is a mighty funny place. It spins wildly and we are held down by its strong ghostly gravity. We're still able to communicate with one another over morning coffee and delicious cake donuts dipped in chocolate. Some of us used to keep…

Notes

845845 views88 comments44 favs

just want to write a music note rap my hands all over my throat jump into the city to stay afloat gotta build me a damn big boat

From This Distance

11171117 views66 comments55 favs

Yes, I can imagine it now/ how we could each disappear completely/ connected only through memory's fault lines/

All the Places

687687 views55 comments44 favs

we went to together are now, according toyou, not to be believed. A memory of athought of a memory, of an arrow. There isno earth. There is no sun. There are no stars. All theplaces we went to together are to be paused,allowed to fade into never. The river is to be…

Ants

15581558 views1212 comments44 favs

The fettuccine is a disaster. Mini-ants have invaded the container. Barry spots them in the boiling water after pouring in the pasta, not much more than floating black specks, but too many to ignore. He dumps out the pasta and returns to the closet to…

The Hour of the Wolf

10481048 views77 comments55 favs

Beneath an opal moon, the open field and wilderness across it look immersed in varying shades of blue. A strong night howler blows across a little girl's face as she walks the field as if in a trance; her whole visage framed against the backdrop of this very act …

Dig

17371737 views99 comments44 favs

Every morning, the children dig holes for their parents. This is both necessary and beneficial: the kids need to dig and the parents have to be buried.

Borgo Was 29 on His Birthday

754754 views66 comments55 favs

Borgo said 1979/So Borga remembered 1979/for him, just in case,/for what if:/ a driver license/or an act of god/or a marriage license/or even a lease/for an apartment/you never know, she said/ so he said, okay/you remember,/so she did.

Out of Time

10241024 views88 comments55 favs

I was so high on the not knowing, I thought, you will love me for my confusion. And so I allowed myself to reach further inward than either of us felt comfortable. I imagined a delicious vanilla pudding at the core of my exploration, sweet and satisfying enough for me to…

Children

15111511 views77 comments55 favs

This was a dream in which I didn’t know fear.

Seattle November

15601560 views88 comments44 favs

He ate husks of bone and old paper scraps with yesterday's headlines, blowing down the street like tumbleweeds now at four o'clock in the morning.He wrapped himself in an old army coat against the November winds as he tramped back and forth, back and forth, up the ten…

Existential Weather Report

745745 views66 comments44 favs

I had a moment of clear inter-species ideation...

Kaddish

10851085 views55 comments55 favs

Summer nights or frozen winter, the crackles of his black.

Three o’clock in the Morning

372372 views88 comments44 favs

.

It's Always the Quiet Ones

12001200 views55 comments44 favs

I know this much: right now I’m over a thousand miles from my brother. I’ve been watching the odometers, adding it all up.

The Kept Man

13651365 views77 comments55 favs

If the Titanic rises from the bottom of the sea, I will meet you on deck, in a deck chair. Fully dressed for a change.

Land's End

12761276 views55 comments66 favs

Wearing Land’s End clothes at life’s end Driving around in circles in your Codgermobile with 3 good hubcaps. Who wouldn’t want to steal that?

Three : Sixteen

997997 views55 comments44 favs

We are a city of overworked workers.

The Dead

11251125 views66 comments44 favs

The dead want you to calm down.They are quite fine, and don't needyour post-mortem tears, the flowers and veils; their names mispronounced by preachers. None of your catechisms will do -- especiallyfor the children, who know them well and need no…

Beelzebub

13191319 views55 comments55 favs

The jewels were dragonflies, buzzing lazily, Beelzebub’s hair a golden meadow.

The Thing on the Stair

19651965 views66 comments44 favs

Autumn brings It

My Friend

12631263 views66 comments55 favs

Remember when we went to New York to take our test? We looked for cheap hotels near the test site, and there was the "Hotel Earle." Twelve bucks a night. The clerk behind bullet-proof glass, smiling a knowing smile. Pubes still on the sheets, but we couldn't sleep anyway,…

What We Give

10891089 views99 comments44 favs

Oh, what jealousy does to us! What love does to the living!